First Attempts!

The theory behind BLW is quite simple.  Infants are born, and when placed immediately on the mother's chest, are able to root themselves around, find the nipple, and latch on.  They're born knowing how to eat.  It's a survival instinct.  You can't make the baby drink from the breast; they'll do it if and when they want.  They lead the way.  It's the very same concept with BLW, which is really just a fancy way of saying, "offer food and they'll figure it out".    The timeline for a traditionally weaned child goes something like this:

• Birth to 4 months: breastmilk only, baby led
• 4-6 months: start purees, spoonfeeding.  Parent led.
• 6-12 months:  move baby onto 3 meals a day, eliminating milk feedings.  Parent led
• +12 months:  give baby 'real' food cut into manageable sizes and let them figure it out.  Baby led.

See where the problem comes in?  Instead of trusting your baby's instincts to feed themselves, you're putting yourself in the middle and over-riding those instincts.  Baby led weaning is really no different than what you would do at age 12 months or older; you're giving your baby food and letting him manage it.  With BLW, you're cutting out the middle man, the dude getting in the way of your baby learning to eat properly:  YOU!

I have a bigger challenge with BLW than a breastfed baby would have, simply because Amelia is formula fed. (I blame the hospital, firmly.)  So I've already over-ridden her self-feed instinct by providing her feedings for her.  Though, because I feed her on demand rather than a time table, and I don't dictate how much she eats at a feeding, we're in a great position to still attempt BLW.  Although the experts warn it can take a bit longer for formula fed babies to get the concept.

Here we go!

Hello!  Just a little intro to tell everyone who I am and why I'm here.  My name is Beth.  I'm the mother of 3 mostly-adorable children:  Nathan, age 13, Kaleb, age 3, and Amelia, almost 5 months.  We've just moved from the cold and lonesome North (read: Michigan) to Sunny Florida, where I've had the opportunity to meet some fantastic people.  Notably, some very 'crunchy' Mama's, who are all about organic stuff and attachment parenting.  These women are astoundingly smart, funny, warm, welcoming and make me want to be a better mother.  Which is how I got to this blog...

A couple of these ladies I have met here have babies just a smidge older than Amelia, and children who are also closer to Kaleb's age.  In conversation, we started chatting about Baby Led Weaning.  It seemed so pure, so natural...so EASY.  So on suggestion, I picked up this book.  And proceeded to read it in one day.  (I have it on my nook, should anyone want to borrow it. :-) )  I was complete convinced that this sounded like not only a good idea, but really, the best idea I'd ever heard!  So here we are, ready to start teaching Amelia all about food and skipping purees completely.  My hope in this process is to not only show people who are skeptical that this is an awesome way to teach babies how to eat, but that it inspires my family and my other particular, picky children to eat better on the whole.  So with no further ado, here we go!!